Well then, here is the new update on how we’ve been in the cold winter wonderland of Sweden. I had the usual stress at work and Barley….yeah, Barley just had a great time!

1. He is racing with his buddies every day in the pasture, loosing a boot every day so that I or my boyfriend (alright, mostly my boyfriend) have to retrieve it every evening.

2. While I was on a business trip to Finland, Fia took care of Barley so he got to ride out with her two days in a row and just loved it.

3. Boyfriends Dad delivered more fresh fruits (fruit, that is left over from the companies he delivers to), so Barley got his beloved kiwi’s again and some bananas, apples, oranges, pears…..

4. The farrier came around and trimmed his feet again. Since we do have a lot of snow the shoes were still fine so they came right back on.

5. While I was trying to sit up in the small indoor arena a couple of days later, he found the plastic geranium, that was (once upon a time) used for some decoration. For some reason he considered it a treat and didn’t want to let loose, so my boyfriend had to put his hand in Barley’s mouth to get it out.

6. I let him loose in the small indoor arena and we were goofing around and just had some fun. He started to play stallion again, tail strait up and blowing out air like a whale, hihi. Then he ran up to the seats again, where I put that darn plastic flower and thought, it was out of reach. He tried to eat it again, so I had to stuff my hand almost down his throat to get it out. Try to reason with a young, mouthy horse, that plastic flowers are NOT to be eaten!

7. Last week I came to the stable and found the girls hanging in front of Barley’s box, laughing at him. When I approached, I found my horse leaning against the wall and it looked like he was using the wall as a pillow for his head. The only thing that was missing was, that he did not had his front legs crossed, otherwise this would have been a perfect ‘Lucky Luke Moment’.

8. Yesterday it was time to get him a new bedding. Once a week we put in fresh shavings and then it’s time to get out of the box quickly….we have about 3 seconds

What happens when a horsemad Ould Wagon moves from Cork to Provence with 2 horses, 2 dogs and a Long Suffering Husband? Why, she gets a third dog, discovers Natural Horsemanship à la Française and starts writing short stories, of course...